Disgraced NZ businessman Ron Brierley has given up his knighthood after pleading guilty last month to possessing child sex abuse material.
Ron Brierley. Photo: Getty Images
The forfeiture comes after the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern started moves to strip Brierley of the title and honour.
Brierley had pleaded guilty last month to three charges of possessing child sex abuse material in the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney, having been arrested at Sydney Airport in 2016.
The 83-year-old will no longer be allowed to use the title "Sir" and has been asked to return his insignia.
The "corporate raider" - as he's usually referred to - founded Brierley Investments, which was one of New Zealand's largest most successful and glamorous companies of the 1980s.
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He was one of the best known New Zealanders of the 1980s and '90s - never far from the headlines or a new business buy-up.
He was an expert at what admirers called "corporate rationalisation" - the ability to spot when to buy a company and reform it to extract more value.
In a statement, Ardern said the Queen had been informed.